February 19th, 2011
 
Three day weekend!  Hooray!  Today, I got to spend some quality time with June.  I took her to the Children’s Museum after breakfast and we stayed there until lunch-time.   After lunch I spent a while organizing and resizing my images for the art show on March 4th.  There’s still a lot of work to be done on this.  In the evening Jenny and I got together with friends for dinner and we all ended up at our place to play board games.
 
We played a game called “Apples to Apples” which if you’ve never played it, it’s quite fun.  It’s perfect for large groups because the pacing is quick and it doesn’t wear you down the way that some board games do.
 
Anyways, to my creative thing.  At the end of the game my friends asked me what my creative thing was going to be tonight and I said, “I have no idea”  They asked if I ever do much writing  and I said “no”.  As it turns out, in the whole of this blog I have only one creative writing exercise.  I’m not exactly sure why that is.  I must admit that writing can take me a while to accomplish.  I just have trouble feeling good about what I’m writing.  I re-read and edit too much as I write.
 
Short stories are what I feel most comfortable writing.  On the other side of that spectrum is poetry.  While I love poetry, especially when I can hear it read aloud, I am completely uncomfortable with writing my own.  Perhaps, I am too insecure or cynical.  I am definitely not the most romantic fellow.
 
Well, my friends challenged me to do a little Haiku poetry post, which made it even more intimidating for me because Haiku is one of those forms of poetry that I have always had trouble understanding.   The rules they made up for me were they would pull four cards from the Apples to Apples deck and the words on each card would end up being the titles for each Haiku.  The words they pulled were, Arrogant, Chewy, Sensitive and Charismatic.
 
Everyone felt bad for dropping this one on me so as a consolation they helped me create one of the haikus, “Chewy”.  So, “Chewy” was a group effort.
 
After they left, Jenny wanted to help me.  I had to turn her down because my haiku’s had to come from me.  Instead, she decided to write her own Haiku’s for each word.  She was much faster than I was.  I have to laugh because her “Sensitive” haiku had me in stitches.  “Circular pink tenderness” became the catch phrase for the rest of the night.
 
In the end, I was glad it ended up being my creative thing for the night.  I felt okay with what I had written.  I even tried to write one with a tone of seriousness.
 
Here you go:
 
“Chewy” (group haiku)
A real jaw-workout
Not the wookie friend of Han
But Abba-zabba
 
 
Jenny’s Haiku’s
 
“Arrogant”
We’re never prepared
Water washes away life
Hurricane season
 
“Charismatic”
Beaming with white light
Trinity Broadcast Network
Religion For Sale
 
“Sensitive”
Poking through my shirt
Circular pink tenderness
My far-right nipple
 
That “My far-right nipple” bit was another source of comedy.  We needed another syllable so it was either far-right nipple or left-most nipple.
 
 
My Haiku’s
 
“Arrogant”
Arro-Gantua
Eight-legged monster of pride
Prepare to be crushed
 
“Sensitive”
Lightly hovering
Peach skin in unison flex
Shudder at the touch
 
“Charismatic”  (my favorite)
Yes, Tony Robbins!
Please let me order your tapes
Now I feel better